There Will Come Soft Rains (Bitter Springs)
by Masser
Summary: Boone and the Courier camp out at Bitter Springs, with Boone hoping to find some solace.


There Will Come Soft Rains

Boone sat on the ridge above Bitter Springs, the cold night air seeping into his skin. The Courier was asleep beside him, breathing silently. Sometimes he mistook her for dead when she slept, her breathing nearly unnoticable. A good way to sleep in the wastes, if you look dead you've probably been picked clean of anything useful. Boone was a restless sleeper, the Courier would often wake him if he started to thrash or call out. Sitting back on his haunches, Boone flicked the safety on his sniper rifle and holstered it, taking his binoculars to scan the area. Nothing concerning. The bay was humming with cazadores, something both he and the Courier hated fighting. They'd wiped out the small group to the north east, clearing the area so they could settle down for the night. Sighing, Boone let his binoculars fall around his neck. Sitting back for a moment, he looked over at the Courier. She laid curled into a small ball, her face almost stonelike in the moonlight. Her helmet served as a pillow, and a roughly patched gecko blanket that she had sewn herself laid beneath her. They'd discussed coming to Bitter Springs after retaking Nelson from the Legion. Now, they were finally here. The flashbacks made it difficult for him, but he knew that this was something he had to do. Waiting was no longer an option.

The morning sun started to rise as Boone started to flash back, children screaming in the early morning light as the First Recon fufilled their orders. Flipping down his shades he tried to shake the sounds of gunfire from his head. The background noise of the cazadores had come to an abrupt halt. Something was wrong. Taking his binoculars Boone scanned the horizon. Cazadores did not go down without a fight, something must have subdued them. The red flag of a Vexillarius - A Legion flag bearer. Rousing the Courier, Boone started to prepare his AP rounds for his rifle. The Courier sat up, rubbing her eyes. Boone gave her a look.

"Oh shit, really?" she whispered

"Yeah, really." Boone answered.

The Courier started folding up her blanket."Northbound?"

Boone nodded. "Yeah. Ready?"

Stuffing her blanket in her duffle bag, the Courier nodded.

They started setting up their rifles, placing rocks and lodging pieces of shrub around them to make a camoflage. The Courier cycled through her ammo types. AP would be best here, Legion armour was light but wasn't breached without a stronger shot. Boone sat back, his rifle at the ready, scanning the area once more. He looked to the Courier. She was ready for the fight, her favourite combat knife at her hip. Legion tactics meant that they may have to move their positions, and quickly. Breathe in, breathe out, Boone thought. This is not the same as last time, this was it. The end all.

The first wave was easy pickings, prime legionnaires were nothing against the best snipers in the Mojave. They dropped like bloatflies in the Goodsprings Cemetery. The next wave was not so easy. Boone could tell that they knew there were snipers from the barely touched corpses of their fallen, bringing their gunners to the front of the ranks. Boone looked to the Courier, who had a spare hand on her knife as she surveyed the Legionnaires.

"Boone, we're going to have to go in."

Sighing, Boone moved back from his rifle. "I knew this was coming." The Courier nodded.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" She said, taking out her knife and popping some buffout.

Boone took his Brush Gun from his back and loaded it. "To tell the truth... I think this is exactly what I've been waiting for."

Leaving their rifles hidden on the ridge, they snuck over to the next hill, waiting till the Legion got to the entrance before jumping in. The Courier was wild, her combat knife ripping through the skin of legionnaires like a Deathclaw through its prey. She wrestled the Legion mongrels and snapped their necks. Boone smirked as he popped the heads off of every red-clad asshole he saw. One of them got closer than the others. A Centurion. He looked almost feral, a dog on a red leash. Groomed by Caesar, a pure Legion mutt, just like the hounds lying dead around him. He pounced, knocking Boone to the ground behind a small metal house. Blood rushed to Boone's head. This was it. A Legion dog, here to tear his throat out before he could do it for himself. Closing his eyes, Boone was ready to surrender. The Legion had taken Carla, he had taken the lives of all those Great Khans. Children, parents, sisters, brothers... There was no reason to resist. These were the things that nobody could stop. Taking a deep breath, Boone waited for his finale.

The Courier walked through the bodies, checking no one was left alive. Her knife held in her mouth, she kicked the bodies of each Legionnaire over, checking their pulses and slitting the throats of any still breathing. Wiping the blood on her armour, she turned to find Boone. He was gone. Fuck.

"Boone?" She boomed. The fuck was he? A muffled grunt came from her left. Crouching down, she snuck over to where she heard the sound. A Centurion had Boone pinned, and was beating on him. Getting closer, she grabbed the knife from her mouth. A whisper passed her lips.

"Thumbs down, asshole"

The Courier launched herself at the Centurion, plunging her ragged knife into his back, the sound of tearing flesh and bone combined with his unholy scream piercing the bloody, quiet morning. Ripping her knife out of the Centurion, she grasped his uniform and dragged him off of Boone, flipping him over. Wrenching off his helmet, she straddled the whimpering Centurion. He whined like the dog he was.

"Kill me. He is already gone. No man will best me."

The Courier looked the man in the eyes and smiled, her knife against his neck.

"And no man has ever bested me."

Plunging her knife into his neck, she left him to gurgle away as she tended to Boone. Time spent with Doc Mitchell had taught her a lot. Knowing there was no more danger nearby, the Courier yelled for help, trying to see if Boone was responsive. Some of the refugees from Bitter Springs emerged, looking to see who was calling for help and if the Legion was gone. Taking the NCR radio from her pack she called the emergency frequency.

"NCR come in. I repeat, NCR come in. Over."

The transmitter crackled to life.

"NCR Affirmative. Report."

"Roger. Courier reporting. We have casualities and wounded here at Bitter Springs. Legion raiding party. Attack started 0900 hours. We took them down but not without losses. Request for aid asap. Over."

"Copy that, Courier. Give us 10 minutes. Over."

"Copy. Will start treating those I can. Courier out."

Tucking the radio into her armour, the Courier began to tend to Boone. Clearing his airway she checked for normal breathing. Relief flowed through her. He was breathing okay. She knew there were others to tend to, but she stayed by Boone a bit longer than needed. Peeling his Beret away, she could see a large bruise forming where the fist of the Centurion had struck. Whipping out a stimpak she administered what she could. Pulling out her blanket she placed it under Boone's head and went to look for more wounded.

It was like a dream. Staring up at the sky, Boone could feel the earth beneath his hands, warm and welcoming. The clouds had come over and soft rain fell onto his cracked aviators, dripping through to his already wet eyes. A muffled voice called his name. He could feel hands beneath him, carrying him out of the rain. It was dark, and voices mingled within his head. He couldn't make out the words, but he could feel a hand on his.

"Carla?" He whispered.

The voices hushed him and a hum like shimmering light reverberated around his head. He tried to open his eyes, but a great fatigue overwhelmed him, and he fell into darkness.

The Courier sat beside Boone, her hand on Boone's as she watched the AutoDoc work. There was only so much that it could do, that a medical professional couldn't. She was sure he would pull through. The NCR doctor ushered the Courier out as the autodoc started to scan his whole body for any other injuries. She didn't want to leave him alone. They had started the cleanup and despite the blood stained earth, there were less casualties due to the NCR's quick response. The graveyard beneath the ridge would be added to, but not by much.

Pacing between the tents, the Courier found herself fidgeting. The agitation and anticipation building inside her made her hands shake. A NCR trooper approached her with a hot drink. Nodding, she accepted. Her hands barely holding the diry mug. It was aguamiel tea. Made from agave sap, the sweet tea reminded her of home for a moment. The Buffout had worn off a little while ago and she could feel her muscles relaxing after the fight with the legion. Sitting down beside the medical tent, she sipped her tea and waited.

A pair of hands on the Courier's shoulders brought her from her drowsy reverie.

"Ma'am, Boone is awake." the trooper said.

The Courier brushed herself off and went with the trooper into the tent. Sure enough, there was Boone. Eyes open, staring at the ceiling of the tent. The Courier had barely seen him without his aviators and his beret. He looked... vulnerable. She sat down beside him and looked up at the ceiling of the tent.

"Nice view, isn't it?" She whispered, smirking a little. Boone sighed. The Courier smiled in reply.

"It's good to see you're still kicking. For a while there I thought you'd given up." The Courier hesitated as she said this, standing up and gesturing for the doctors to give them some privacy. The doctors filed out as Boone pushed himself up, wincing as he raised his head from the pillow.

"Take it easy, Boone."

Boone nodded weakly and cleared his throat, looking for his beret.

"Where's my beret?" he croaked. The Courier smiled, drawing the hat from her bag. He took it gratefully and settled it over his bandages. He cleared his throat and fingered the bruises on his arms.

"We made it through after all." Boone said, his fingers twitching over his stitches. He looked back up at the ceiling, avoiding the Courier's gaze. "Not sure... what to make of that."

The Courier stood up and moved to the end of the bed. "Can I sit here?" Boone nodded and she sat, silence settling between them.

"Boone... Why aren't you sure?" The Courier asked quietly. Boone swung his legs over the side of the bed slowly, groaning a little as his legs dropped over the side of the bed.

"To be honest, I thought my time had come. For a moment there everything made sense." Boone looked to the Courier, face blank but for a slight frown. "I was ready for it."

The Courier stared at the dirt beneath her feet. "The end?"

She could feel Boone shift uncomfortably. "I know what you mean, Boone. I've been there."

Boone's voice rose as he started to shake. "It was supposed to be the end, goddamnit. I was read for it. Now.. I'm back where I was and nothing has changed. I'm still HERE." He was almost yelling by this point, the Courier poised to restrain him in case he did anything rash. She could barely raise her voice above a whisper.

"You underestimated us, Boone."

He looked to her, his eyes glistening slightly.

"I did. I figured that whatever we could handle, the Legion was going to send more. I should... I should've died here a long time ago."

The Courier moved closer, taking Boone's shoulder.

"I was never going to let you die."

A dark chuckle escaped Boone's lips as he met the Courier's eyes. "I realised that when I saw you kill that Centurion. But I've come to believe that there are things nobody can stop. I thought for sure that's what we'd finally come up against today. It would'be made sense for things to end here."

The Courier nodded. "But now you're still waiting."

Boone sighed. "Yes."

"I think..." the Courier stopped in her tracks. Was this the right thing to say? She took a deep breath and spoke.

"I think that having to live with what you've done is your punishment, Boone. There is no finale in the real world. Sometimes the shit we have to deal with is just waist deep."

Boone chuckled. "You know, I never thought of it as wading through a river of shit, but you've got a point." His voice dropped. "I'd always expected things to be more clean cut."

The Courier stood up and stretched. "You can't take back what you've done, but your regrets can set you on a better path."

Boone nodded. The Courier walked to the flap of the tent and looked back at Boone, a smile on her lips. Despite all that she'd said, Boone couldn't shake the feeling that he was living on borrowed time. Something would get him someday, he just wasn't sure what. But before that happened, he knew there were some things he could do before it was all over. He called out to the Courier.

"Wait. Come here."

The Courier raised an eyebrow and walked back over to Boone's bed. Taking her hands, he locked eyes with her.

"Thank you."

The Courier smiled and walked back to the tent flap.

"You're welcome, now get some rest."


End file.
